Benin’s government on Sunday said it had thwarted an attempted coup after a group of soldiers announced on state television that they had ousted President Patrice Talon.
Military and security sources said about a dozen soldiers had been arrested, including those behind the coup bid.
The west Africa region has experienced a number of coups in recent years, including in Benin’s northern neighbours Niger and Burkina Faso, as well as Mali, Guinea and most recently, Guinea-Bissau.
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Talon, a 67-year-old former businessman dubbed the “cotton king of Cotonou”, is expected to hand over power in April next year after 10 years in office marked by solid economic growth but also a surge in jihadist violence.
Early on Sunday, soldiers calling themselves the “Military Committee for Refoundation” (CMR) said on state television that they had met and decided that “Mr Patrice Talon is removed from office as president of the republic”.
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But soon after the announcement, a source close to Talon told reporters the president was safe and condemned the coup plotters as “a small group of people who only control the television”.